(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a roasting or broiling oven, and particularly to one that has a rotisserie spit for supporting food to be broiled within the oven. The spit is automatically controlled to turn the food over periodically so that it does not become overcooked on one side.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
In the past, it has been the usual practice in spit roasting or charcoal broiling to impale the meat on a spit and by using fork members or skewers on the spit to prevent the meat from slipping with respect to the spit. Then, by slowly rotating the spit in the presence of a radiant heating energy source, it is possible to achieve uniform cooking of the food. The primary advantage of cooking meat on a rotisserie spit is that the meats baste in their own juices as they turn; plus, they are cooked rapidly and uniformly. It is deemed desirable to provide a special spit having an adjustable wire basket for clamping small servings of food such as hamburger patties, spareribs, chicken parts, and the like. However, in roasting many small food servings in a basket of a rotisserie spit, it is preferable to substitute for the slow, constant-speed, turning action of a standard spit, a slow, lost-motion, reversible turning action for the food basket, so the flat sides of the basket are exposed to the heat source for longer periods of time. Hence, the food is held in a fixed position for the longest period of time and then the food is quickly turned over or inverted and held for a similar long period of time. This hold-turn, hold-turn action is repeated until the food is cooked to the proper degree of doneness.
An example of such a rotisserie spit with an intermittent drive mechanism is described in the Williams/Eff Pat. No. 3,633,491, which is assigned to the present assignee. This patent shows a rotisserie spit supporting an adjustable wire basket in an elevated position, near the center of the oven cooking cavity, from a broil pan supported from an oven rack. One end of the spit fits into a chuck movably mounted through the back wall of the oven liner, and this chuck is driven by a motor-drive mechanism mounted on the rear of the oven liner. This chuck of the patent is unique in that it has an inner chuck that is rotated at a constant speed for turning the spit at a uniform rate in one direction only. The inner chuck supports an outer chuck which is capable of mating with a special spit and food basket combination so that the basket has a slow, intermittent, turning action for exposing first one side of the food to the broiling element for a given length of time and then inverting the basket for exposing the opposite side of the food in the basket to the same broiling element. The speed of broiling food from a radiant heating source is dependent on the wattage or BTU of the heating source and the distance between the heating source and the food to be cooked. For relatively thick portions of meat, it is best to space the meat away from the heating source because the meat has to be cooked for a long period of time so that the interior of the meat will be cooked sufficiently. If the thick portions of meat were positioned very close to the heating source, the outer surface of the meat would be cooked first before the interior were properly cooked, and, therefore, the exterior would be burned before the interior were properly cooked. As a corollary to this, if the meat to be cooked is thin, it should be positioned closely adjacent the heating source so that the meat would be cooked rapidly and the interior of the meat would be satisfactorily cooked at the same time the exterior were properly cooked. Such a close positioning of thin servings of food to the broiling element is not possible in the above-cited Williams/Eff patent, because in that patent it is necessary that the pivotable axis of the spit be spaced away from the broiling element by a distance greater than half of the width of the food basket so that the basket is capable of rotating within the oven through 360.degree. without striking the broiling element.
The principal object of the present invention is to provide a roasting oven with a rotisserie spit that has an oscillatory motor-drive mechanism that is capable of supporting the rotisserie spit closely adjacent the underside of the upper broiling element and, at the same time, is capable of inverting the food-supporting basket carried by the spit so as to be able to broil both sides of the food without interference with the broiling element.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a roasting oven of the type described with an oscillatory motor-drive means so the spit will move back and forth through an angle of about 180.degree. so that at each end of the movement of the spit the food will be positioned closely adjacent the underside of the broiling element, thereby furnishing radiant heating energy to both sides of the food being cooked, in alternate steps, so as to obtain a generally uniform broiling action.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a rotisserie spit of the class described supporting a food basket at one side of the spit so that the basket is capable of swinging from a first horizontal position down through an angle of about 180.degree. to a second horizontal position generally in the plane of the first horizontal position.